Attachment 🧑‍🧒

Question 1

Outline attachment bonds

Answer 1

• Attachment is an enduring two way emotional tie to a specific person, normally between a parent and child, that develops in set stages within a set timescale

• They’re characterised by an infants desire to maintain close proximity to a particular person who gives them a sense of security, usually the mother, expressing separation protest in their absence

• Attachment bonds are seen to have developed when the infant shows stranger anxiety and separation protest.

Question 2

Define stranger anxiety

Answer 2

Distress in the presence of unknown individuals

Question 3

Define separation protest

Answer 3

Distress at the absence of a specific person

Question 4

Explain why caregiver-infant interactions are necessary

Answer 4

Serve to develop and maintain an attachment bond, consisting of several rich and complex communication methods

Question 5

Identify the five caregiver-infant interactions

Answer 5

1. Bodily contact
2. Mimicking
3. Care-giverese
4. Interactional synchrony
5. Reciprocity

Question 6

Explain bodily contact as a caregiver-infant interaction

Answer 6

Physical interactions between the infant and carer that help form the attachment bond, especially immediately after birth

Question 7

Explain mimicking as a caregiver-infant interaction

Answer 7

Infants imitate facial expressions of carers, seemingly an innate, biological device to aid attachment formation

Question 8

Explain care-giverese as a caregiver-infant interaction

Answer 8

Adults use modified vocal language that’s high-pitched, song-like, slow and repetitive when interacting with infants to aid communication and strengthen the attachment bond

Question 9

Explain Interactional synchrony as a caregiver-infant interaction

Answer 9

Infants move their body in tune with the rhythm of the careers voice to create a turn-taking seen with vocal conversation in order to reinforce the bond

Question 10

Explain reciprocity as a caregiver-infant interaction

Answer 10

Mutual behaviour during interaction to incite responses from each other which helps fortify the attachment bond

Question 11

Identify the research that proposed the stages of attachment development

Answer 11

Schaffer and Emerson (1964)

Question 12

Outline the aim of Schaffer and Emerson (1964)

Answer 12

To assess whether there was a pattern of attachment formation common to all infants and describe the distinct stages by which attachments form

Question 13

What was the sample and method of Schaffer and Emerson (1964)

Answer 13

Sample: 60 new-born babies and their mothers from a working class area of Glasgow
Method:
- Mothers and babies were studied each month
for the first year and at 18 months in their own
homes
- Observations and interviews with mothers aksed
about who infants smiled at, responded to or
who caused them distress ect.
- This was measured in two ways; separation
protest assessed through several everyday
situations like the infant being left alone in a
room or being put down after being held and
stranger anxiety, assessed by the researcher
starting each visit by approaching the child to see
if they became distressed.

Question 14

Outline the findings of Schaffer and Emerson (1964)

Answer 14

• Most infants started to show separation anxiety when parting theattachment figure at 6-8 months, with stranger anxiety coming around 1 month later

• Strongly attached infants had mothers who responded quickly to their needs and gave more opportunity for caregiver-infant interactions whereas weakly attached infants had slower responding mothers that gave fewer interaction opportunities

• Most infants developed multiple attachments, 87% had at least two by 18 months, with 31% having five or more

Question 15

Outline the conclusions of Schaffer and Emerson (1964)

Answer 15

• Common attachment pattern to all infants, suggesting the process is biologically controlled

• Attachments are made more easily with those displaying sensitive responsiveness, recognising and responding appropriately to infants needs rather than those spending the most time with infants

• Multiple attachments are the norm, opposing Bowlby’s monotropic theory of one prime attachment, Schaffer even suggested there’s nothing to suggest mothering can’t be shared by several people

Question 16

List the 4 stages of attachment and the age at which each takes place

Answer 16

1. Pre-attachment stage: Birth to two months
2. Indiscriminate stage: Three months to seven/eight months old
3. Discriminate stage: Seven/eight months old and onwards
4. Multi-attachment stage: Nine months old and onwards

Question 17

Outline the pre-attachment stage of attachment

Answer 17

• Infants respond similarly to all inanimate and animate objects

• From six weeks they become attracted to other humans, showing a greater preference for social stimuli, seen through smiling faces and being more content with people

• Reciprocity and Interactional synchrony play a key role

Question 18

Outline the indiscriminate stage of attachment

Answer 18

• Around four months infants become generally sociable and show preference for human company over inanimate objects

• Begin to discriminate between familiar and unfamiliar people, smiling more at known people but are still easily comforted by anyone and don’t show stranger anxiety

Question 19

Outline the discriminate stage of attachment

Answer 19

• Infants develop specific attachments, specifically with the primary caregiver

• Infants display stranger anxiety and separation anxiety

Question 20

Outline the multiattachment stage of attachment

Answer 20

• A wider circle of multiple attachments is formed depending on the infants consistent relationships

• Usually with major caregivers such as grandparents and non-caregivers like other children, the importance of which is disputed (eg. Bowlby- monotropy)

• Stranger anxiety weakened and attachment to mother remains the strongest

Question 21

Outline Schaffer and Emerson’s (1964) research into the role of the father

Answer 21

• They were less likely to be a primary attachment figure than mothers, suggesting this could be because they spend less time with infants

• According to the office for National statistics (2019), of the 6.2 million couple families with dependent children in the UK, 28.5% of mothers changed their working hours, compared with 4.8% of fathers

Question 22

Outline the role of the father in caregiver-infant relationships

Answer 22

• Less of a caregiver and more of a playmate, providing more physical, unpredictable and exciting play compared to mothers who traditionally show sensitive responsiveness

• Males can quickly develop this ability when assuming the position of main caregiver, depending on several factors

Question 23

Identify and explain the factors that affect the attachment a father will have with his children

Answer 23

• Type of attachment with their own parents;
- single parent fathers tend to form similar
attachments with their children that they had
with their own parents

• Martial intimacy;
- a fathers intimacy in his relationship with his
partner

• Supportive co-parenting;
- The amount to support the father gives his
partner in caring for children

• Degree of sensitivity;
- More secure attachments to their children are
found in fathers who show more sensitivity to
their needs

Question 24

Identify the study that is key in the role of the father in attachment with their children

Answer 24

Lamb (1997)

Question 25

Outline Lamb (1997)

Answer 25

Reported studies have shown little relationship between father accessibility and infant-father attachment, proposing four alternative suggestions:

• Most men aren’t psychologically equipped to form an intense attachment because they lack a woman’s emotional sensitivity

• Biological factors e.g. oestrogen (female sex hormone) underlies caring behaviour

• Social factors in that women are more orientated toward interpersonal goals than men

• Cultural factors such as sex stereotypes may affect male behaviour e.g. sensitivity towards others is seen as femenine

Question 26

Why was attachment research carried out on animals

Answer 26

There’s believed to be a biological continuity between humans and animals and it’s more ethical than studying humans

Question 27

Define imprinting

Answer 27

An innate readiness to develop a strong bond with the mother which takes place during a specific time in development, probably the first few hours after birth/hatching. If it doesn’t happen then, it probably wont

Question 28

Identify the two main animal studies into attachment

Answer 28

• Lorenz (1935)
• Harlow (1959)

Question 29

Outline the background and aim of Lorenz (1935)

Answer 29

• Konrad Lorenz was an ethologist who spent years studying goslings to understand imprinting.

• He aimed to investigate the evolutionary explanation of attachment that states infants are pre-programmed to form an attachment the second they’re born and the mechanisms of imprinting where the youngsters follow and form an attachment to the first large, moving object that they see

Question 30

Outline the method of Lorenz (1935)

Answer 30

• Half the Greylag gooses eggs were hatched by Lorenz using an incubator, the other half were hatched normally by the mother.

• Lorenz made sure that when the eggs in the incubator hatched, he was the first thing that they saw. He also imitated a mother duck’s quacking sound. They soon started to follow him around.

Question 31

Outline the findings of Lorenz (1935)

Answer 31

• The goslings quickly divided themselves up, one group following the natural mother and the other following Lorenz

• Lorenz’s brood showed no recognition of their natural mother, he noted this process as imprinting and stated that it was restricted to a very definite critical period of 32 hours. If a gosling didn’t imprint in these first few hours it wont imprint at all. This influenced later theorists such as Bowlby.

Question 32

Outline the conclusion of Lorenz (1935)

Answer 32

• Imprinting is a strong evolutionary feature of attachment in certain birds and is with the first object, not other potential cues such as smell and sound. Animals can imprint on a persistently present moving object seen within the first 32-48 hours. The process is similar to attachment in that it binds a young animal to a caregiver in a special relationship

• Lorenz did observe imprinting to humans doesn’t occur in some animals e.g. curlews

• The process is irreversible and long lasting

Question 33

Outline the background and aim of Harlow (1959)

Answer 33

• Harry Harlow conducted landmark research on attachment, titled ‘The origins of love’. He sought to demonstrate mother’s love (attachment) wasn’t based on the feeding bond, contradicting the learning theory of attachment.

• Harlow (1959) aimed to study the mechanisms by which newborn Rhesus Macaques monkeys bond with their mothers. He conducted several variations of his experiment to establish the basis of the bond between mother and infant

Question 34

Outline the method of Harlow (1959)

Answer 34

• Harlow conducted two separate experiments with 8 newborn Rhesus Macaque monkeys, over a period of 165 days. Both were similar in procedure and were conducted to investigate attachment behavioural patterns

• In the wire mother experiment, Harlow separated infant monkeys from their mothers immediately after birth and placed them in a cage with two surrogate mothers; one made of wire which provided food (baby bottle containing milk) and one was made of cloth and provided no food.

• The time period the infants spent with each mother was recorded and observations were made when they felt frightened.

Question 35

Outline the findings of Harlow (1959)

Answer 35

• The period spent with each mother was recorded and it was found both groups spent more time with the cloth mother, the infant would only go to the wire monkey when it was hungry.

• If a frightening object was placed in the cage, the youngster took refuge with the cloth mother, treating it as a safe base. This surrogate was more effective at decreasing fear and allowed them to explore more.

EXTRA INFORMATION:
• All monkeys drank equal amounts and grew at physically the same rate, but the similarities ended there. Harlow continued to study the monkeys growing up and noted many consequences of their early attachment experiences.

• Later on in life, the monkey displayed socially and sexually abnormal behaviour if they were with the surrogates for more than 90days, otherwise the effects were reversed. They froze or fled when other monkeys approached and didn’t show mating behaviour or cradle their own babies

Question 36

Outline the conclusion of Harlow (1959)

Answer 36

• Support the evolutionary theory of attachment in that the sensitive response and security of caregivers is what’s important as opposed the the provision of food

• Rhesus Macaque’s and potentially other primates such as humans have a biological need for physical contact and will attach to whatever provided comfort- not food, conflicting the cupboard love theory

Question 37

List the explanations of attachment

Answer 37

• Learning (cupboard love) theory
• Bowlby’s monotropic theory

Question 38

Outline the learning theory of attachment

Answer 38

• Proposed by behaviourist psychologists who believe children are born blank skates (tabula rasa) and behaviour’s learnt through experience. This can be learnt through classical conditioning or operant conditioning

Question 39

Explain how the learning theory of attachment explains the learning of attachment through classical conditioning

Answer 39

• Attachment bonds can be explained through classical conditioning

• During the first few weeks of infancy, certain things become associated with food because they’re present during feeding, such as the infants mother or the chair she sits on.

• These are neutral stimuli and if they’re regularly and consistently associated with an unconditioned stimulus it ‘takes on the properties’ of the unconditioned stimulus and will produce the same response. This means the neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus and produces a conditioned response

• Food (unconditioned stimulus) produced a sense of pleasure (unconditioned response). The caregiver who provides the food becomes a conditioned stimulus associated with this pleasure that becomes a conditioned response.

• This association between an individual and this sense of pleasure is the attachment bond

Question 40

Explain how the learning theory of attachment explains the learning of attachment through operant conditioning

Answer 40

• When we’re rewarded for something, behaviours reinforced with pleasant consequences and were more likely to repeat behaviour, so learning occurs

• Dollard and Miller (1950) proposed the drive reduction theory

• The drive reduction theory states that a hungry infant feels uncomfortable and this creates a drive to reduce the discomfort. When the infants fed, the drive is reduced and a sense of pleasure is produced. Food acts as the primary reinforcer and the person supplying the food is the secondary reinforcer and is associated with avoiding discomfort.

• Attachment occurs as the child seeks the person who supplies the reward

Question 41

Outline Bowlby’s monotropic theory

Answer 41

• Bowlby was heavily influenced by Harlow and Lorenz’s studies on animals, leading him to reject the learning theory.

• He applied the findings to humans and concluded that emotional bonds had evolutionary functions, such as survival value from when humans were in danger of predators and babies had to be close to caregivers.

• Bowlby viewed attachment as a behavioural system where a mother inherits a genetic maternal attachment programme to respond to the babies attachment behaviour. Therefore attachment is the innate behavioural system in infants and caregivings the innate response of adults and the formation of attachment depends on the interaction of these two systems.

• This behavioural system involves key factors such as monotropy, social releasers and the critical period and lead to the development of the continuity hypothesis

Question 42

Define monotropy as part of Bowlby’s monotropic theory, making link to internal working models

Answer 42

• Monotropy suggests that attachment is a hierarchy with the prime attachment at the top and the secondary attachments below.

• This attachment’s unique, the first to develop and the strongest of all. It forms a model for relationships which the infant will expect from others

• The importance of monotropy is that an infant has one special relationship and forms a mental representation of this relationship, forming an internal working model. There are several consequence that make this important.
• In the short term, children have an insight into
caregivers behaviour, so they can inflict that
behaviour and form a true partnership
• In the long term it acts as a template for all
future relationships because it generates
expectations about what intimate, loving
relationships are like

Question 43

Define and explain key social releasers as part of Bowlby’s monotropic theory

Answer 43

• Innate, species-specific attachment behaviours that are improtant in ensuring attachments develop.

• These include looking, smiling and vocalising to maintain parental attention and interest as well as following and clinging to maintain proximity and finally crying to gain attention

Question 44

Define the critical period as part of Bowlby’s monotropic theory

Answer 44

Bowlby’s believed carers (usually the biological mother) would respond to social releasers in a meaningful way. However, as attachment is innate, there’s a limited window for development. This is known as the critical period and Bowlby suggested attachment behaviour is useless for most children after 12 months, and all children after two and a half to three years

Question 45

State the continuity hypothesis within Bowlby’s monotropic theory

Answer 45

Proposes individuals who are strongly attached in infancy continue to be socially and emotionally competent, whereas infants who are not strongly attached have more social and emotional difficulties in childhood and adulthood

• Proposes a continuity from infancy to adulthood in terms of emotional type

Question 46

Outline Kagan’s (1984) temperament hypothesis

Answer 46

• An infants innate emotional personality may explain attachment behaviour better. Kagan put emphasis on the child, while theorists such as Bowlby put emphasis on the mother.

• This theory is supported by Schaffer and Emerson (1964) who found innate differences in the sociability of babies

Question 47

Identify studies into different attachment types

Answer 47

• Ainsworth (1978)
• Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg (1988)

Question 48

Outline the background and aim of Ainsworth (1978)

Answer 48

• The strange situation was devised by Ainsworth and Wittig (1969) based on Ainsworth’s (1967) study in Uganda.
Ainsworth focused on the individual differences in attachment, in contrast to co-researcher Bowlby, who had focused on the universality of attachment.

• Ainsworth aimed to measure the security of attachment in one to two year olds using the Strange Situation Paradigm.
• She did this in order to determine the nature of attachment behaviour and styles of attachment under conditions of novelty and mild stress

Question 49

Outline the method of Ainsworth’s (1978)

Answer 49

• Ainsworth set up 8 pre-determined ‘episodes’ in a novel environment. This was environment a 9x9 square foot research room marked into 16 squares to help in recording infant’s movements.

• During these episodes, which were approximately 3 minutes long, infant behaviour was observed. They were designed to highlight certain behaviours in response to specific situations. Separation from the caregiver produced separation anxiety, reunion with the caregiver produced reunion behaviour and response to a stranger produced stranger anxiety

• The novel environment aimed to encourage explorations to test the ‘secure base’ concept

• Data was typically recorded by a group of overseers using a video recorder or one way mirror. Data was recorded every 15 seconds using the following behavioural categories recorded for intensity on a scale of 1-7:
• Contact seeking behaviours
• Contact maintaining behaviours
• Contact avoiding behaviours
• Contact resisting behaviours
• Search behaviours

Question 50

State the eight episodes in Ainsworth’s (1978) strange situation paradigm

Answer 50

1. Parent and infant play
2. Parent sits while infant plays (secure base)
3. Stranger enter and talks to parent (stranger anxiety)
4. 1st separation episode where the parent leaves, infant plays and stranger offers condor if needed (separation anxiety)
5. 1st reunion episode where the parent returns and greets the infant, offering comfort if needed and the stranger leaves (reunion behaviour)
6. 2nd separation episode where the parent leaves the infant alone (separation anxiety)
7. Stranger enters and offers comfort (stranger anxiety)
8. 2nd reunion episode where the parent returns and greets the infant and offers comfort (reunion behaviour)

Question 51

Outline the findings of Ainsworth (1978)

Answer 51

• Combined data from several studies made a total of 106 middle class infants observed in the strange situation

• Similarities: Exploratory behaviours declined in all infants from episode 2 onwards and the amount of crying increased

• Differences: Three main patterns of behaviour were observed. Consistency was apparent in clusters of behaviour which added up in three qualitatively different types of attachment

Question 52

Outline the conclusion of Ainsworth (1978) and explain the three attachment types

Answer 52

• Three main patterns of behaviour were observed. Consistency was apparent in clusters of behaviour which added up in three qualitatively different types of attachment:

• Type A- Insecure avoidant (22%)
Infants are willing to explore and avoid contact at the return of their caregiver. They have low stranger anxiety and are unconcerned by separation. Caregivers are indifferent to infants needs

• Type B- Secure attachment (66%)
Infants are keen to explore and are enthusiastic at the return of their caregiver. They have high stranger anxiety and are easy to soothe after separation. Caregivers are sensitive to infants needs.

• Type C- Insecure resistant (12%)
Infants are unwilling to explore and they seek and reject contact at a caregivers return. They have high stranger anxiety and are upset by separation. Caregivers are ambivalent to infants needs, demonstrating simultaneous opposite behaviour.

Question 53

Explain attachment in the different types of culture

Answer 53

• Collectivist cultures, such as Japan, China and Israel, focus on interpersonal development of infants. They have a more favourable reaction to obedience and social behaviour so there’s less antisocial behaviour.

• Individualistic cultures, such as USA, UK and most of Europe, focus on developing initiative in infants. They have a more favourable reaction to independence but there’s more antisocial behaviour.

Question 54

Outline cultural variations in attachment

Answer 54

• Similarities in attachment type across cultures suggest attachment is heavily influenced by biological factors, while cultural differences in attachment imply environmental factors are important in attachment bonds

• If Bowlby’s belief that attachment is evolved and has survival value is true then patterns of attachment should be similar across cultures, regardless of child rearing styles and therefore secure attachments should dominate all cultures, with roughly equal levels of Type A and C

• If different attachment types are found cross-culturally it would mean infants attachment types are not biological but learned through exposure to cross-cultural child rearing styles

• Child rearing styles do vary across cultures, for example in the UK insecure avoidant attachments are viewed negatively and are linked with weaker attachments. However, in Germany it’s valued and associated with independence

• Key studies have been conducted into cultural variations into attachment such as Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg (1988) and McMahon-True, Pisana and Oumar (2001)

Question 55

Outline the aim of Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg (1988)

Answer 55

• Aimed to investigate any pattern in attachment types across eight cultures to see whether the proportions of type A, B and C attachments were the same in all cultures

• Aimed to evaluate similarities and differences in the profiles of attachment types between cultures

Question 56

Outline the method of Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg (1988)

Answer 56

• Carried out a meta-analysis of 32 studies from 8 cultures that used the strange situation paradigm in order to assess mother-child attachments, classified as type A, B or C.

• 1,900 separate classifications were used with all the studies containing at least 305 mother-infant pairs with infants younger than 2 years old

Question 57

Outline the findings of Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg (1988) EDIT THIS WITH BETTER DATA

Answer 57

• Secure attachments innate because most children have a (type B) secure attachment, suggesting it’s the norm. They found that intra-variation differences were very small with secure attachment being the most common.

• The range of secure attachment varied from 50% in China to 68% in Japan. The second most common type was insecure-avoidant (type A) in all cultures except Japan and Israel, which are both collectivist. In both cultures, insecure-resistant was the second most common type at 27% in Japan and 29% in Israel.

• Intra-variations, differences within cultures, were found to be 1.5x greater than inter-variations which are the differences between cultures

Question 58

Outline the conclusions of Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg (1988)

Answer 58

• There’s a global pattern of attachment across cultures which appears to be similar to what was found in America by Ainsworth (1978). Type B is the norm, supporting the theory that it’s the basis for healthy social and emotional development.

• This supports the evolutionary view that Bowlby originally suggested as patterns of attachment types are similar across different cultures

Question 59

Outline McMahon-True, Pisana and Oumar (2001)

Answer 59

• Aimed to assess whether infant attachment types are different from our own culture in rural Dogon villages. They assessed this using 42 mother-infant pairs that raise infants using natural parenting methods.

• They compared the findings with North American samples and found children’s attachments were similar except naturally parented Dogon infants had 0% type A (insecure-avoidant) attachments and more type B (secure) attachments.

• There were higher levels of secure attachment due to the incompatibility of Dogon child-rearing practices with Western practices associated with type A attachments. For example, there was no maternal rejection of attachment bonds, intrusion or lack of physical contact.

Question 60

Outline Bowlby’s maternal deprivation hypothesis (MDH)

Answer 60

• The MDH believes healthy psychological development is dependant on attachments forming between infants and their mothers and explains what happens when these attachments are broken or not formed

• Bowlby proposed that prolonged, emotional deprivation would have long term consequences on a child’s emotional, social and intellectual development

• Key research comes from Bowlby (1944)

Question 61

Outline short term separation according to Bowlby’s maternal deprivation hypothesis

Answer 61

• Includes separation such as daycare, babysitting, hospitalisation

• Bowlby (1969) proposed the PDD model that consists of:
1. Protest includes the immediate reactions of crying, kicking, struggling to escape and calling for parents or clinging them. Also includes rejecting attempts at consolation

2. Despair includes the infant being miserable, apathetic, isolated, lacking appetite, and still very angry and fearful inside. Children prefer to comfort themselves by rocking/thumb-sucking and may no longer expect their mother to return
3. Detachment is when the child begins to respond to others again and treats everyone alike and superficially. Children protest on reunion with parents. They cling to them but also reject them and act angrily. It’s concluded at this stage the attachment bond has broken

Question 62

Outline long term separation according to Bowlby’s maternal deprivation hypothesis

Answer 62

• Involves lengthy or permanent separations from an attachment figure, most commonly due to divorce. Death, imprisonment and neglect tend to result in foster families

• Based on data from 2020, 33% of UK marriages (103,592) end in divorce and within 2-3 years of divorce, 50% of divorced parents not living with their children have lost contact with them (usually the father)

• Bowlby suggested the long term consequence of deprivation was emotional maladjustment or even mental health problems such as depression

Question 63

Define privation according to Bowlby’s maternal deprivation hypothesis

Answer 63

The absence of an attachment figure and so there is no opportunity to form an attachment bond

(Consideration for the critical period needs to be recognised)

Question 64

Outline Bowlby (1944)

Answer 64

• Analysed case histories of a 88 of his patients at a child guidance clinic in London. 50% of these were caught stealing and 50% acted as the control group
• Families were interviews to establish any prolonged separation from their mother and the 44 thieves were interviewed for signs of affectionless psychopathy, characterised by a lack of guilt and empathy

• Of the 44 thieves, Bowlby found 12/14 individuals diagnosed with affectionless psychopathy had experienced frequent early separations from their mothers compared to just 5 of the remaining 30.

• Bowlby concluded that prolonged early separation or deprivation causes affectionless psychopathy

Question 65

Explain what is meant by the effects of institutionalisation

Answer 65

• Refers to the effects of institutional care and concerns a mixture of privation and deprivation, specifically how time spent in an institution such as an orphanage can affect the development of children

• Bowlby’s MDH (44 thieves) was largely based upon children raised in institutions in the 30s and 40s

Question 66

Identify and explain the effects of institutionalisation

Answer 66

Physical underdevelopment
• Children in institutional care are usually
physically small. Gardener (1972) found that a
lack of emotional care rather than
malnourishment is the cause of deprivation
dwarfism

Intellectual underfunctioning
• Cognitive development is affected by emotional
development. Sodak and Skeels (1949) found
that children who scored poorly on intelligence
tests’ IQ improved by almost 30 point when
transferred to an institution where they received
emotional care

Disinhibited attachment
• For secure-attachment where children don’t
discriminate between people they choose as
attachment figures. These children treat near
strangers with inappropriate familiarity and are
attention seeking

Poor parenting
• Harlow found that monkeys raised by
surrogates went on to become poor mothers
which was supported by Quinton et al (1984)
who compared 50 institutionally reared women
to a control group of 50 women reared at home.
They found that in their 20s, institutional women
were experiencing extreme difficulty as parents

Question 67

Explain he context behind Romanian Orphan Studies

Answer 67

• In 1966, the Romanian government tried to boost the population by encouraging parents to have large families and banned abortions which led to more than 100,000 orphans in 600 state run orphanages

• Children spent days alone in cribs with little stimulation, malnourished and uncared for

• In 1989, the regime collapsed and the world discovered the extent of the orphan situation. This offered a chance to study separation and deprivation

• Key research comes from Rutter and Sonuga-Barke (2010)

Question 68

Outline the context and aim of Rutter and Sonuga-Barke (2010)

Answer 68

• Rutter et al (1990-2010) led a study of Romanian orphan studies since the early 90s. The study’s referred to as ERA (English and Romanian adoptees)

• To assess the effects of institutionalisation on Romanian Orphans

Question 69

Outline the sample and method of Rutter and Sonuga-Barke (2010)

Answer 69

• The study focused on 165 Romanian orphans who spent their early lives in an institution and suffered the effects of institutionalisation

• 111 were adopted before the age of two and a further 52 by the age of four. Adoptees were tested at regular intervals (ages 4, 5, 6, 11 and 15) to assess their physical, cognitive and social development
• E.g. through BMI, IQ and communication tests

• Information was gathered through interviews with parents and teachers and was compared to a control group of 52 British children adopted before 6 months

Question 70

Outline the findings of Rutter and Sonuga-Barke (2010)

Answer 70

• Initially the adopted orphans lagged behind their British counterparts on all measures (smaller, weighed less and classed as mentally retarded)

• Almost all orphans adopted by six months had caught up by the age of four

• Significant defences remained in a ‘substantial minority’ of individuals who’d experienced institutional care after six months

• Those adopted before six months rarely showed signs of disinhibited attachment whereas those after six months often did

• Children had abnormally low IQ’s and those adopted after two years old averaged 77 compared to 102 of those adopted before 6 months. Signs of disinhibited attachment showed once IQ fell to 86

Question 71

Outline the conclusions of Rutter and Sonuga-Barke (2010)

Answer 71

Suggested that long term consequences may be less severe if children have the opportunity to form attachments. However, if they don’t consequences are likely to be severe, providing support for the effects of institutional care

Question 72

Outline early attachment effects

Answer 72

• The continuity hypothesis sees children’s attachment types as reflected in their later relationships. This idea is based on the internal working model whereby an infants primary attachment forms a model for future relationships

• Research indicates there’s a continuity between early attachment styles and quality of childhood relationships and that children who form attachments with each other in early life won’t form adult sexual relationships

Question 73

Explain the role of the internal working model in early attachment effects

Answer 73

• An internal working model is an operable model of self that can be used to predict future behaviour

• They’re similar to schema in that infant learns about relationships and how to behave within them

• Good experience of attachment involving a loving relationship and reliable caregiver leads to good expectations and functional relationships
• Bad experience of attachment will mean a child bears this experience in later relationships in that they struggle to form them or don’t behave appropriately within them. They have bad expectations of relationships

Question 74

Outline the early attachment effects in adult relationships

Answer 74

• There’s an intergenerational continuity between adult attachment types and their children adopting their parents parenting style and qualities in later relationships

• Behaviours linked to the internal working model include:
1. Childhood relationships
2. Poor parenting
3. Romantic relationships

Question 75

Outline AO1 research into the early attachment effects on childhood relationships

Answer 75

• Sroufe et al (2005) ‘Minnesota parent-child study’ found continuity between early attachment and later emotional/social behaviour from infancy to late adulthood.
• Individuals classified as securely attached in infancy were rated highest for social competence in later childhood and were less isolated, more popular and empathetic

Question 76

Outline AO1 research into the early attachment effects on poor parenting

Answer 76

• Harlow found that monkeys raised by
surrogates went on to become poor mothers

• This is supported by Quinton et al (1984) who compared 50 institutionally reared women to a control group of 50 women reared at home. They found that in their 20s, institutional women were experiencing extreme difficulty as parents

Question 77

Outline AO1 research into the early attachment effects on romantic relationships

Answer 77

• Hazan and Shaver (1987) placed a ‘love quiz’ in a small town publication and asked which descriptions best fit their views of romantic relationships
• Found a correlation between attachment type and love experiences
• Securely attached adults described love positively and emphasised supporting partners despite their faults